Whelan Energy Center

Whelan Energy Center is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Hastings Utilities near Hastings, Nebraska.

Plant Data

 * Owner: Hastings Utilities
 * Parent Company: City of Hastings, NE
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 76.3 MW (Megawatts)
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 76.3 MW (1981)
 * Location: 4520 East South St., Hastings, NE 68901
 * GPS Coordinates: 40.584445, -98.318345
 * Electricity Production: 549,295 MWh (2005)
 * Coal Consumption: 365,000 tons (2005)
 * Coal Source: Wyoming
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * CO2 Emissions: 709,714 tons (2005)
 * SO2 Emissions: 2,563 tons (2005)
 * SO2 Emissions per MWh: 9.33 lb/MWh (2005)
 * NOx Emissions: 1,103 tons (2005)
 * Mercury Emissions:

Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Whelan Energy Center
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.

Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Whelan Energy Center
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Whelan Energy Center Unit 2
 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Nebraska and coal
 * Hastings Utilities
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming